By Shaenon K. Garrity

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I’m very fond of this strip, especially for the way Madblood’s expressions and poses came out. Also for the picture of a pimply young Madblood on the wall. I probably could have gotten away with doing more strips of Madblood just hanging out at his mom’s house, trying to get his plans of world conquest and miscellaneous revenge back off the ground.

Madblood and Dave are always this close to making friends, but it never quite works out.

Madblood’s version of events may not be 100% accurate. Especially the part where Helen was “his woman.” But look, he’s trying to be friends! Give him some credit!

I like to think that Lovelace’s emancipation involved the assistance of Project Skin Horse.

I’ve said this before, but I feel bad about Lovelace getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop in Narbonic. She’s manhandled, jilted, and killed, and in the end the only bright side is that she and Dave can finally bond over being ruthlessly experimented upon. Good for her, taking the initiative to get the heck out of this comic.

I was never totally happy with the resolution between Lovelace and Dave here, but, like Dave says, there’s not a whole lot that can be said to make it better.

It’s Mell in her pinstripe lawyer suit! Excellent! And, yes, Lovelace can’t sign the papers because she’s a hologram. Mell might be a little confused on this issue.

How good is this strip? It’s got Helen in a towel, and I only had to draw two panels. That’s my definition of an excellent strip.

I drew my own bathroom, more or less. Helen’s has more hearts all over the place.

Aw, there’s a photo behind them of the whole gang in happier days. Or, if not happier days, less complicated ones. I used the photo again in a Narbonic story I did for the Couscous Collective’s SPACE anthology, currently out of print but someday to return in omnibus form.

Is this seriously the next-to-last week? How did that happen? I’m going to miss writing these little notes every day.

I was out working the Australian V8 Supercars races this weekend, so I didn’t get to see last Saturday’s strip until this morning. That’s the one proudly framed and hanging on my office (well, cubicle) wall. Shaenon ran the picture I sent her a while back. 🙂

Being the sentient nonhumant entity equivalent to CPS, Skin Horse is the most likely to get involved. If she can convince them that Madblood maltreated her in the course of her job, the Machine Union would probable be willing to help and they almost certainly have deeper pockets for representation than an understaffed government bureau with no lawyers.

I think Lovelace and Moustachio the Thinkonium could have a very interesting relationship, were it not for Gavotte. OTOH, perhaps Moustachio would think of Lovelace as a granddaughter of sorts. Of an evil, tried-to-take-over-the-world sort.

I’m sorry, but…. Parchesi? I’d think Madblood would at least be a fan of Munchkin. I just spent a week and a half occasionally playing board games with a friend who had a stroke in early March, and he handled it, along with Hey! That’s My Fish, Qwirkle, and Flash Point.

Madblood really needs to up his game. And with something like Munchkin, he might get some much better inspiration.

She’s sure taking it all in stride. In the future, VP Mell pretty much said Dave’s last relationship was with Lovelace. I wonder if it was actually between Dave’s digital self and Lovelace’s backup. They would have had that much more in common, and could have… ‘interacted’ with each other on a whole new level.

Hm. So, when Dave got killed, he had a spirit that went to Hell, so he remembers it all. Does/did Lovelace have a spirit too? And if so, is it recoverable? And, if it is recoverable, does this mean that in the Narbonic/Skin Horse universe, it would be possible to recover from computer crashes by holding a seance?

Open source?? Whoa, Lovelace, be careful what you ask for. Five months ago you thought having Dave “streamline” your code was “harmless fun”. Letting hundreds of geeks you’ve never met have their way with you sounds more like gang rape….

Flannel to lab coat! Thanks for pointing that out, Leon! I had to go back and check exactly when that happened. I wonder if there’s something about him coming out on top with the Dave Conspiracy that is that final rite of passage for him into Mad Empowerment….

I’ll miss the daily notes, but hey, as Tetra said, Skin Horse awaits. You wouldn’t even have to wait until SH is (Heaven forfend) finished. There must be a way to start an annotated “Skin Horse Classic” stream.